A grassroots response to senior citizens’ needs started The Council on Aging, Inc. (COA) (formerly Fulton County Council on Aging, Inc.). The Council on Aging is a private, non-profit, tax exempt organization established in 1973 under the guidance of the late Father Henry Jones Charles Bowden, a former leader in the Episcopalian diocese both nationally and locally. Father H.J.C. Bowden provided over 20 years of leadership to the agency, and served as an advocate for senior issues. He served as chairman of the Board of Directors, and provided the foundation for The Council on Aging.

In 1973 concerned citizens from agencies, consumers and retired adults met to determine the impact of the 1965 Older Americans Act (OAA), specifically the provision of services, to senior citizens who resided in City of Atlanta, Fulton County. Title III dollars of the OAA provided for the coordination of community based services. This group strategized on the development of an aging network of services which included transportation, home delivered meals, senior centers , and case management. After the agencies disbursed to provide services for seniors, a group of concerned seniors continued to meet to discuss aging issues, programs, services and advocacy. These groups met monthly at local senior high rise facilities throughout the City of Atlanta. The Council on Aging, Inc. (formerly Fulton County Council on Aging) received IRC 501(c)(3) tax exempt status in 1977. The Council on Aging has grown from a group of concerned individuals into a grassroots advocacy, education and outreach agency for senior adults.

As the years progressed, The Council on Aging developed Area Councils in South Fulton County in the early 1980's and in North Fulton County in l986. In 1999, the Central Fulton Area Council, developed in 1977, was divided into two geographically separate groups, the East Area Council and the West Area Council. The concept of Area Councils was developed to address seniors’ needs and concerns in these respective communities, as well as to educate seniors about issues impacting the senior adult population. Area Council members have become the aging leaders in Fulton County and the City of Atlanta. This group of concerned seniors serves as the voice of seniors in public hearings, in meetings with elected officials, in attending aging advisory groups and in serving as representatives to the Silver Haired Legislature. Their monthly Area Council meetings provide them with understanding of senior issues, leadership skills as well as the ability to express these issues to other groups and policy makers.

They are leaders on: The Atlanta Regional Commission Aging Task Force, Georgia Council on Aging, Fulton County Commission on Elderly Affairs, City of Atlanta Task Force for the Elderly, Older Atlantan’s Task Force , Senior Citizen Task Force for Grady Hospital and Multi-Purpose Facility Advisory Boards.

During the 90's the program aspects of The Council on Aging expanded to include: Door-to-Door and Community Outreach, Community Education, Information Dissemination, Leadership/Volunteer Training, Senior Housing Peer Counseling Program, Medicare Empowerment Program, Special Community Events, Service Referral and Follow-up as well as Direct and Indirect Advocacy. The agency’s outreach program, Senior Outreach Services (SOS) Program has as its mission to assess needs, connect low-income, isolated seniors to available services, and overcome barriers or resistance to utilization of needed services. The SOS Program is innovative in that it is the only door-to-door outreach program in the Atlanta Region. With expansion, there was a need to change the name of the agency from Fulton County Council on Aging (FCCOA) to The Council on Aging (COA). Our governing body is a Board of Directors composed of 14 (fourteen) consumers, public officials, aging services providers, and private sector senior adults.

For the last 16 years, perhaps the biggest struggle and success for the agency has been increasing awareness of the need for senior multi-purpose facilities and decent senior neighborhood centers. As a result of COA’s advocacy efforts, The Fulton County Board of Commissioners committed funding of over $50 million for construction of four (4) senior multi-purpose facilities and have made up-grades to and/or started construction on at least eight (8) senior centers. Two (2) members of COA’s Board of Directors have senior multipurpose facilities named in their honor: Dorothy C. Benson Senior Complex & Adult Day Care Center (North Fulton County); Helene S. Mills Multipurpose Senior Facility (East Atlanta). Additionally, H.J.C. Bowden Senior Multipurpose Facility (South Fulton County) was named for the founder and past chairman of The Council On Aging, Inc., Father H.J.C. Bowden (deceased).

Recent grassroots advocacy efforts of The Council on Aging have accomplished the following:

1. Establishment of advisory boards for senior citizens on each level of local government.
2. Development of a Senior Citizens Facility Plan in Fulton County which included the investment of over $50 million dollars for four multi-purpose senior facilities and the expansion/improvement of eight neighborhood senior
centers.
3. Development of the Grady Hospital Geriatric Clinic.
4. Increased property tax exemptions for senior citizens.
5. Increase funding for housing repair programs for senior citizens.

Over the past 30 years, the agency’s programs have been supported through funding and/or collaborations from agencies including: Municipal Fire Departments, Fulton County Office of Aging, Grady Health Systems , South Fulton Senior Services, Senior Services North Fulton and Central Fulton Senior Services. Additionally, The Atlanta Regional Commission collaborated with the agency and funded the Medicare Empowerment Program, Senior Discount Program, Health Outreach Program and North Fulton Creating Senior Friendly Communities Project.

Government support from Fulton County and the City of Atlanta has contributed to agency funding for over 20 years. The agency conducted the Fulton County Information and Referral Program for Title III of The Older Americans Act. Additionally, private funding support has been received from foundations including United Way, Community Foundation of Metropolitan Atlanta and SunTrust Bank of Atlanta. Additionally, the agency was nominated by Grady Health Systems and formed a partnership with GlaxoSmithKline and the University of Pennsylvania Institute on Aging through receipt of the SHARE Leadership Award. This award was granted to only thirteen (13) community-based organizations throughout the United States and Canada.

For over 30 years, The Council on Aging has been involved in promoting a greater awareness of, and facilitating solutions to needs and concerns of the over 90,000 senior citizens in North, Central and South Fulton County. These geographical areas reflect a diversity of urban, suburban and semi-rural communities. According to statistics found in Aging America: Trends and Projections, “With advancing age, a greater portion of the elderly use public benefits or community services. Use is more prevalent among those who are poor. Older adults living in poverty, isolated in urban neighborhoods have a greater need for information and access to aging services and advocacy than their economically advantaged, suburban contemporaries.” COA’s history as an advocacy group, and its experience in
serving a diverse community has made the agency an ideal channel through which to evaluate, to represent and to respond to the critical needs of the low-income, isolated and uninformed aging community.

Currently, COA program components include: (1) Area Councils on Aging (2) Community Outreach (3) Service Referral and Follow-up (4) Community Education (5) Information Dissemination (6) Leadership Training (7) Direct and Indirect Advocacy (8) Medicare Fraud Watch (9) North Fulton Creating Senior Friendly Communities Project and (10) Special Community Events. Through these program components, The Council on Aging provides aging services information, needs assessments and service referrals to over 10,000 Fulton County senior adult residents annually.